3. Administrative Core The administration of the Center Core will be integrated with that of CBS. This is important for three reasons. First, it makes sense intellectually, since the cores are the key to implementing the CBS vision. Second, CBS has already established an administrative structure, so the Cores can be up and running with minimum delay. Third, it is financially efficient to avoid the creation of a separate bureaucracy. At present, three people share administrative duties in CBS: i) The Director of CBS and the P.I. of this Core Grant is Joshua R. Sanes, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Sanes was on the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis for over 20 years before moving to Harvard in 2004 to direct CBS. Sanes has studied molecules and mechanisms that regulate the differentiation of synapses and the specificity with which they form. In addition, he has pioneered transgenic methods for marking neurons so that their lineage can be followed and their synaptic connections monitored. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors and the National Advisory Council for National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health. ii) The Executive Director of CBS is Kenneth Blum. Blum earned a PhD in Physics, and then did postdoctoral work in Neuroscience at Brandeis and MIT before becoming a senior editor at Neuron in 1999 and then its deputy editor in 2002. He moved to Harvard in 2004 to help lead CBS. Blum has conducted research in condensed matter physics, computational neuroscience, and systems neuroscience. In the latter category are studies on the role of hippocampal place cells in learning, memory, and navigation. His background is especially useful in building the ties between physical and life scientists necessary for the success of Cores B andC. iii) The CBS Coordinator is Ray Kohno. Kohno earned a BA in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley. He handles the bulk of scheduling for faculty recruiting, seminars and other meetings. Together with Blum, he manages CBS finances and HR, and will oversee the financial aspects of the Cores. These three will devote considerable time to administration of the cores, but we do not request financial support for them here. With funds provided by the Administrative Core of this Grant, we will recruit a half-time staff assistant who will be entirely devoted to the day-to-day management of the grant. Most likely, this would be a full-time employee whose other half time will be used to assist one or more faculty members, who neither need nor could afford a full-time office manager. This Core staff assistant will report directly to Blum. His or her duties will include: Maintaining the Core web site (which will include information, protocols, and sign-up sheets) Scheduling meetings of the Core Executive Committee Maintaining record of core usage and expenditures Preparing scientific reports Ordering supplies at the request of Core personnel Providing limited administrative support to Core managers